Advice Needed Can’t find satellites, where am I going wrong?

[a33]

that LNB is really designed for a Sky dish so it won't work quite as efficiently as a standard LNB

Do you mean that the feedhorn is elliptical, to match the elliptical form of a Sky dish?
The movie on this website shows what looks like a circular feedhorn (at 01:02): GeoSync | Professional Signal Reception

https://www.alltrade.co.uk/public/product/gk4lb-quad-lnb-user-guide-v2-pdf.pdf just says: feedhorn "optimized for offset dish".

So I don't really see a special Sky-dish property of this LNB, only that the LNB bracket fits the arm of a sky dish.

Am I missing something?

Greetz,
A33

 

[mike1]

Ive uploaded a channel list set for this meter on another thread which includes 19/28e .

Might be easier to find 19e first then work to 28e.

Not sure if your meter has any pre stored channels in??

 

[4wd]

Here's my old 'supertool' for finding sats, the simple thing reacts -immediately- to minute signs of signals, one never swipe dish past any available signal \ sats. The leds also useful, confirming cabling\receiver alive and well. Easy to set a useable basic elevation\azimuth, then finetune later using f.ex. wifi + phone app.

Am setting dish roughly to the right direction\elevation, then patiently move dish very slowly and very minimally updown\leftright until signs of life. Depending on setup, cm's \ mm's will make all the difference. As mentionned, set reciever to a known EU freq., adjust dish to get 100% quality (should fry the lnb :O) then a blindscan to (hopefully, if dish large enough) get the UKs, + the rest of the EUs.

 

[timo_w2s]

Do you mean that the feedhorn is elliptical, to match the elliptical form of a Sky dish?
The movie on this website shows what looks like a circular feedhorn (at 01:02): GeoSync | Professional Signal Reception

https://www.alltrade.co.uk/public/product/gk4lb-quad-lnb-user-guide-v2-pdf.pdf just says: feedhorn "optimized for offset dish".

So I don't really see a special Sky-dish property of this LNB, only that the LNB bracket fits the arm of a sky dish.

Am I missing something?

Greetz,
A33

If it's that one in the marketing video, then maybe it's not actually good for a Sky mini dish! I always thought it was best to try to match the shape of the feedhorn to the dish to avoid background interference and to be able to see all of the dish's surface.

 

[Billygoatgruff]

Ive uploaded a channel list set for this meter on another thread which includes 19/28e .

Might be easier to find 19e first then work to 28e.

Not sure if your meter has any pre stored channels in??

Yes the meter has 248 pre stored channels, I’ve had it set on Astra 2E/2F/2G but have also tried Astra 2B and Eurobird 1 which are all at the same location I believe ..
I would be really happy to find 19.2E but so far I can’t find anything
I’ve just read elsewhere that the LNB needs to be connnected to the sat receiver for power, which seems obvious but I had understood that my meter supplies power in the same way, it does have an incorporated rechargeable battery. Am I correct here? If not that would certainly explain my complete lack of success

 

[a33]

I always thought it was best to try to match the shape of the feedhorn to the dish to avoid background interference and to be able to see all of the dish's surface.

You are absolutely right. And such LNBs with elliptical feedhorns do indeed exist (but it is often not visible, hidden behind the feedhorn cap).

In this post
Just Sharing This - Calculation of the focal length of an offset satellite dish antenna, Revisited
we concluded (on the basis of measurements by @ozumo ), that a "normal" LNB doesn't 'see' the left and right edges of a Sky dish.
So that would mean, that an elliptical feedhorn indeed increases reception from the left and right parts of a Sky dish.

Greetz,
A33

 

[a33]

I’ve just read elsewhere that the LNB needs to be connnected to the sat receiver for power, which seems obvious but I had understood that my meter supplies power in the same way, it does have an incorporated rechargeable battery. Am I correct here?

When your meter indicates signal strength >0, that means that the LNB "is working". So I would think that you are correct in assuming the meter is supplying power. But I have no experience with those kind of meters.

Greetz,
A33

 

[Billygoatgruff]

Here's my old 'supertool' for finding sats, the simple thing reacts -immediately- to minute signs of signals, one never swipe dish past any available signal \ sats. The leds also useful, confirming cabling\receiver alive and well. Easy to set a useable basic elevation\azimuth, then finetune later using f.ex. wifi + phone app.

Am setting dish roughly to the right direction\elevation, then patiently move dish very slowly and very minimally updown\leftright until signs of life. Depending on setup, cm's \ mm's will make all the difference. As mentionned, set reciever to a known EU freq., adjust dish to get 100% quality (should fry the lnb :O) then a blindscan to (hopefully, if dish large enough) get the UKs, + the rest of the EUs.

Thanks for this suggestion. I do have a similar one to this, it’s old and I assumed it was no longer sny good but didn’t realise it also had to be connected to the receiver for anything to happen! Having invested in a meter for this installation I haven’t bothered with this this time. I’ll give it a try!

 

[Billygoatgruff]

When your meter indicates signal strength >0, that means that the LNB "is working". So I would think that you are correct in assuming the meter is supplying power. But I have no experience with those kind of meters.

Greetz,
A33

That’s reassuring, however I will give it a try connecting the box, it can’t hurt! I haven’t even got as far as connecting the cable yet as I wanted to get the dish set up first. For me one of the advantages of the meter is being able to use it anywhere independently.

 

[Billygoatgruff]

S (signal strength) is not important. As long as it is not just zero, it is usually OK.
It is Q (signal quality) that is important, and that shows that you receive "something".

Normally I advise to use https://www.satellite-calculations.com/Satellite/lookangles.htm
to find, at what time of day the sun azimuth is the same as the satellite azimuth for your position. So that you can aim with help of the sun.
Alas, the website seems to ask for login data nowadays?

Greetz,
A33

Edit:
Try tomorrow at about 10:06 GMT +0
(So for you about 11:06 at GMT +1 ?)
I calculated it with an unknown to me website: Calculation of sun’s position in the sky for each location on the earth at any time of day

When the sun shines at that moment, put a string from top of dish to LNB, and check that the shadow of that string will be along the vertical center of the dish. Then your azimuth would be about to 28.2E

Good luck!

Thanks! Not possible today but I’ll give it a go tomorrow